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If you have any questions about ValleyCreates, please contact Nicole Bourdon, Program Officer
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The current multi-year implementation grant cycle is underway. No planning grants are currently being offered.
The Innovation Grant Program offers multi-year grants to large, innovative projects. In 2020, we will be funding our third and final year of three projects. If a new round of innovation grants is to be offered, it would be in 2021.
CFWM hosted its first Innovation Grant competition in the Fall of 2016. This first round of funding was for planning grants that provided “early stage” funding to nonprofits for emerging ideas, initiatives and/or new collaborations that could substantially impact or provide measurable progress toward solving a significant challenge in our region.
We invited nonprofit organizations to use this opportunity to ignite change, turn old solutions on their head, create and/or energize coalitions, collaborate to solve problems, and work toward impacting significant, sustainable and measurable change in the Pioneer Valley.
CFWM looked for proposals that exhibited the following merits:
- Offered game-changing and feasible ideas that positively impact the quality of life in the Pioneer Valley;
- Used collaboration and unique thinking processes;
- Included feedback from “end-users” of the innovation;
- Had the potential to seed, leverage and/or expand funding;
- Had clearly stated data and outcomes for both the planning and implementation processes.
CFWM funded the following three projects:
- Paradigm Shift, led by Five Colleges, Inc.
- Food Insecurity Screening and Referral Initiative, led by The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Inc.
- Big Enough: The Small Home Revolution in Western Mass, led by the Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity, Inc.
Other examples of CFWM Innovation Grantees
Since 2015 the CFWM funded the following Innovation Grants:
- Energizing workforce development in Springfield – A planning grant and a 3-year implementation grant awarded to the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council to support a Working Cities Federal Reserve Challenge Grant. Total grants = $60,000.
- Growing small businesses – A multi-year grant awarded to Valley Venture Mentors- to create a business Accelerator program for entrepreneurs seeking to build their early stage start-up companies. Total grants: $300,000
